Teachers force extra classes forced upon students

VietNamNet Bridge – Many parents complain that their children are overloaded by regular school hours and they do not want them to attend extra classes, but they must. There are many methods that teachers can use to force students to go to extra classes.

Students of Nguyen Van Kip Primary School in HCM City finish school at 4:30 pm every day. None rush home after the drum signals the end of the school day. About 20 students instead are seen carrying their schoolbags to a classroom about 100 metres from the school, where they attend an extra class. The students have small meals for a few minutes before they begin a new study shift.

Two other extra classes for students of the school also gather in the evenings, quartered in the next alley.

H., a parent of a 3^rd grade student at the school, was seen waiting to pick up his child at 6pm. He told a Tuoi tre reporter that, at the beginning of the school year, the teacher told the students that they must attend extra classes. “If students do not go to extra classes, the teacher would not take responsibility for student’s bad marks,” the man revealed.

H. explained that, as a result, his son attends an extra class at the teacher’s home near the school. During the class, held every Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, the teacher review lessons.Parents pay 150,000 dong a month for this extra class.

Many 12^th graders of Nguyen Thi Dieu High School in HCM City complain that they don’t want to study extra hours with their teacher, but they must. A parent told Tuoi tre that the teacher asks students to go to four extra classes in mathematics, physics, chemistry and literature. Many students only pay the teacher, while they just sit in the class.

N.T.Tl, a parent of a student of Phu Dinh Secondary School in HCM City was surprised when the teacher asked all students to attend extra lessons in the afternoon, from 1.15 pm to 5.15 pm, charging 320,000 dong per month.

“Eight students do not attend the extra classes, so they don’t get the documents for exam preparation compiled by the teacher. During school hours, the teacher asked students to do the exercises in these handouts, and those students who did not have them had to sit idle,” T. complained.

G., whose daughter is studying at Nam Thanh Cong Primary School in Hanoi, at first decided not to send her to extra classes, because the girl is overloaded with lessons. Later, she later changed her mind.

When the girl did not go to the extra class opened by her teacher, the girl received bad grades on tests. Since she began going to the extra class, her marks have improved considerably.

“Other parents said they once had the same problem,” G. commented.

According to a Nghia Tan Secondary School teacher in Hanoi, teachers do not force students to go to extra classes, and students and their parents decide whether or not to attend extra classes.

However, M., who has a child studying at Nghia Tan School, explained that while teachers extra classes are not compulsory, in fact, teachers apply many methods to force students to attend.

“One time, I was asked by the teacher to visit her at the school. She gave me my son’s test score of 8 /10. She then commented that, had my child had gone to the extra class, he would have a 10, because the teacher gave the same question to the extra class,” M. related.

A Dong Da School student in Hanoi complained that those who do not go to extra classes always receive discriminatory treatment from their teacher. “We know the teacher is not satisfied with students who do not go to extra classes,” she observed.

Source: Tuoi tre